[ Exlipsed ]

A bleak view of societal decay, oppression, and lost humanity.

No one understands
Nobody is trying
The world is in a trance
Humanity is dying
Echoes stretching on
But nobody’s replying
The status quo of us
Ceaselessly denying

Silent, nonexistent
Society, a phantom
The government expanding
The tyrant running rampant
Cultists cultivating
Allegiance to the anthem
Building a religion
Just another fall of Adam

That is how it seems
The gleaming of our visions
Only seeing lies
While our minds are held imprisoned
We sever every tie
For we’re a people of division
Filled with hatred, we despise
Anything we’re not convinced in

No conviction, what-so-ever
A complete indoctrination
Society so squalid
Via public education
Democracy destructive
Fitting the noose to liberation
A crowd building the gallows
To rejoice assassinations

Bloodshed, rain showers
Soaked and saturated
Cattle on the altar
Divided, lacerated
Sacrifice humanity
Problems exacerbated
Offer up responsibility
In hope’s evaporation

The narrative controlled
So you can never ask the question
Persuaded and patrolled
Giving up to worst intentions
Afraid and unconsoled
All without an intervention
Leaves but hatred in your hold
As you rise up in contention

Dusk, your state of being
Your heart held in darkness
Eyes unseeing
The mind being harnessed
By lies and deceit
Losing self as though a harlot
Used and cast aside
Like a cheap and worthless garment

Love and compassion
Merely become a myth
Empathy turned apathy
As you start to lose your grip
Where life is meant for living
You have slowly let it slip
Let death come between you
As your love is left eclipsed


©Garathe Den
©Heart of Babel

The poem is a dark, reflective exploration of collective moral decay, societal corruption, and spiritual desolation. Through vivid imagery and rhythmic despair, it captures the poet’s vision of a world consumed by apathy, manipulation, and self-destruction. Beneath its bleak tone lies a deeper commentary on humanity’s loss of light—symbolized by the eclipse of love, compassion, and truth.


Existential and Social Despair

The opening stanza sets the atmosphere of alienation and futility:
         “No one understands / Nobody is trying / The world is in a trance / Humanity is dying.”
These lines establish the poem’s pervasive despair and critique of modern indifference. “The world is in a trance” suggests mass complacency—a society dulled by distraction or manipulation. The poet laments that the essence of humanity is dying, not necessarily in a literal sense, but through the erosion of empathy and authentic engagement. This theme echoes existentialist notions of spiritual emptiness within mechanized, conformist civilizations.

The refrain of “ceaselessly denying” highlights denial as the central human flaw: denial of truth, morality, and collective accountability. The very act of “not replying” serves as an emblem of indifference—human voices have gone silent even as echoes of suffering linger.


Political and Religious Manipulation

The second stanza shifts tone from despair to accusation. The poet directly indicts society and government:
         “The government expanding / The tyrant running rampant... Building a religion / Just another fall of Adam.”
Here, the “tyrant” and “cultists” stand for blind obedience and authoritarian forces that exploit ideology—religious or political—for control. The “fall of Adam” allusion evokes humanity’s original sin: the loss of innocence through the pursuit of false or forbidden knowledge. By connecting this with modern politics and mass devotion to nationalist “anthems,” the poem suggests that humanity’s ancient moral failure perpetually repeats itself under new disguises.

Religion becomes corrupted—no longer a source of salvation but a structure of manipulation, “building a religion” that leads to moral collapse. The phrase “another fall of Adam” implies a cyclical history of downfall, where humankind never learns from its past.


Division, Indoctrination, and Moral Collapse

Subsequent stanzas deepen the commentary on mass division and indoctrination:
         “We sever every tie / For we’re a people of division.”
“No conviction, what-so-ever / A complete indoctrination.”
The poet sees society as torn apart by ideology, prejudice, and misinformation. “Division” becomes both symptom and strategy—people grow to despise anything they don’t believe in, underscoring the tribalism of modern discourse. This breakdown of unity leaves individuals without conviction, easily swayed by rhetorical manipulation and “public education” that indoctrinates rather than enlightens.

The poet’s depiction of “Democracy destructive / fitting the noose to liberation” is especially striking. This paradox implies that in the name of freedom and democracy, systems of control tighten—citizens unwittingly build their own oppression, “a crowd building the gallows to rejoice assassinations.” The masses become executioners of truth and morality, celebrating destruction as progress.


Imagery of Sacrifice and Control

The fourth and fifth stanzas use religious and ritualistic imagery:
         “Cattle on the altar / Divided, lacerated / Sacrifice humanity / Problems exacerbated.”
Here, humanity itself becomes the offering—sacrificed to sustain the very systems that oppress it. The poet blends the sacred and the grotesque to illustrate a profound irony: in seeking atonement or progress, society destroys the essence of what it means to be human. The “altar” transforms into a metaphor for collective guilt and blind faith in destructive institutions.

The “narrative controlled” expands this theme into media and propaganda. People are “persuaded and patrolled,” their thoughts engineered to maintain compliance. The lack of “intervention” signals moral paralysis—people’s passivity allows corruption to thrive. The stanza’s closing image, “hatred in your hold,” shows how manipulation distills human energy into anger rather than understanding.


The Eclipse of the Self and Love

The penultimate stanza—beginning with “Dusk, your state of being”—turns inward. The “eclipse” now symbolizes personal as well as societal darkness. “Your heart held in darkness / Eyes unseeing” implies spiritual blindness; individuals are emotionally and mentally shackled by deception. The self deteriorates under constant exploitation—“used and cast aside / like a cheap and worthless garment.” This powerful simile evokes both disposability and self-loss in a commodified world.

Finally, the last stanza delivers the emotional and philosophical culmination:
         “Love and compassion / Merely become a myth... Let death come between you / As your love is left eclipsed.”
“Eclipsed” is not just the poem’s title but its ultimate metaphor: the light of love, compassion, and humanity is temporarily or perhaps permanently obscured. The poem closes with resignation rather than redemption. Life, which should be vibrant and meaningful, has “slipped” into decay, dominated by apathy and moral death. The eclipse suggests that hope and light still exist, but are hidden—implying that rebirth would require lifting the shroud of lies and restoring emotional truth.

Conclusion

“Eclipsed” serves as a mournful yet piercing commentary on the human condition in an era of moral decline, systemic deceit, and existential numbness. It entwines political critique, religious symbolism, and emotional despair to portray a civilization that has lost its light—the light of love, empathy, and truth. Beneath its darkness lies a faint implication: an eclipse, though total for a time, is never permanent. The poem thus leaves readers not with hopelessness, but with the haunting challenge to rediscover what has been obscured.